Ever since its inception, social media has dazzled marketers with the allure of connecting brands with consumers on a deeper, wider level. While many companies have evolved from the toe-dipping, experimental phase and are now formulating strategies to create social interactions online, only recently has there been a serious focus on justifying the dollar and time expenditures involved. Discovering true social return on investment (ROI) has been elusive.

1. February 2010 Insight Brief
Seven Guidelines for
Achieving ROI from
Geoff Ramsey,
Social Media
CEO
geoff@emarketer.com
Executive Summary: Ever since its inception, social media has dazzled marketers with the allure of connecting
brands with consumers on a deeper, wider level. While many companies have evolved from the toe-dipping,
experimental phase and are now formulating strategies to create social interactions online, only recently has there
been a serious focus on justifying the dollar and time expenditures involved. Discovering true social return on
investment (ROI) has been elusive.
Professionals Worldwide Who Measure the ROI of This eMarketer Insight Brief looks at the current state of
Their Social Media* Programs, August 2009 (% of online social media measurement and ROI metrics, and
respondents)
how these critical indicators of success will evolve in
2010 and beyond.
Measure ROI
16%
Marketers who take the time and money to not only
Do not hone their social media strategies but tie those efforts
measure ROI
84% to bottom-line results stand to gain significant
competitive advantage.
Note: *includes blogs, chat, discussion boards, microblogs, podcasts,
ratings, social networks, video-sharing, wikis, etc. 106743
Source: Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, "Social Software in
Business," September 8, 2009
106743 www.eMarketer.com
In this Series:
10 Best Practices for Success with Social Media
Slideshow: Social Media Marketing by the Numbers
Five Reasons Why Marketers Need to Have a Social Media Strategy
Where Does Social Media Fit Within an Organization?
What You Need to Know About Earned Media
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media
Social Media Misfires: How to Head Off Trouble Before It Hits
The Future of Social Media Marketing
Digital Intelligence Copyright ©2010 eMarketer, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Fewer Than 1 in 5 Marketers Why ROI Measurement Is So Rare
Measure Social Media ROI
There are three basic reasons why less than one-fifth of marketers
calculate ROI or some other form of hard financial metrics for their
A survey by Mzinga & Babson, conducted among
social media efforts:
marketing professionals worldwide, found that
I Marketers believe that measuring true ROI for social media is difficult.
only 16% were measuring the ROI of their social
I There are so many metrics available that it is difficult to choose
media efforts as of summer 2009. which ones are the most important.
Comparative estimates from other sources confirm this low I Marketers do not start with clear objectives for using social media.
incidence of formal ROI measurement. Fewer than one in five
marketers are actively linking their social media efforts to Difficult Measurement
financial performance: In a February 2009 Aberdeen Group survey, 59% of marketers
worldwide said that social media was difficult to measure, and
I Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). 12% of
20% claimed it was “very difficult.”
US member marketers measure social ROI all or most of the time
(October 2008). A June–July 2009 survey by Equation Research dug deeper, finding
that 37% of brand marketers felt that they did not know enough
I Aberdeen Group. 18% of “best-in-class” global marketers link
about social media to begin using it, and an equal 37% said there
results of social media activities to increased revenues and
was no good way to measure social media effectiveness.
other financial outcomes (February 2009).
Further, as reported in the aforementioned Mzinga/Babson study, Barriers to Social Media Adoption According to US
Brand Marketers and Ad Agencies, June-July 2009 (%
more than 40% of marketers do not even know whether the social of respondents)
tools they are using have ROI measurement capabilities.
We don't know enough about social media to know where to begin
37%
31%
In fall 2009, when Forrester Research asked
There's no established way to measure the effectiveness of
marketers to rate their own ability to measure the social media
impact of their social media initiatives, the average 37%
28%
self-awarded grade was 4.5 out of 10.
There is no funding for social media in our budget
In a global study conducted among e-mail marketers 26%
in early 2009, Econsultancy found that while 78% 24%
rated e-mail marketing as “excellent” or “good” for We just don't have the time to invest in starting a social media
program right now
determining ROI, only 35% gave those ratings to 25%
social media. 17%
Social media is not a proven/tested strategy
19%
31%
We have legal constraints and/or corporate policies that prevent
us from these types of marketing activities
15%
9%
Social media is not seen as a good use of employee time
7%
10%
Other
9%
9%
Don't feel there are any barriers
18%
21%
Brand Agency
Note: n=85 brand marketers; n=85 ad agencies
Source: Equation Research, "2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report,"
August 18, 2009
106248 www.eMarketer.com
106248_modifiedforgeoff
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 2

3. Why ROI Measurement Is So Rare
The same lack of ROI visibility is found among online retailers. “We typically measure [ROI] success by
According to a 2009 Shop.org/Forrester study, the most prevalent looking at metrics including the number of
attitude toward social media marketing among US online retailers friends or followers; the time spent with the
is that “the return on investment is unclear.”
brand across all touchpoints; the number of
Attitudes About Social Media Marketing Among US
comments, posts or uploads; and the types
Online Retailers, 2009 (% of respondents) of content that are forwarded to friends. All
The return on investment is unclear of these metrics go into an ROI calculation
66% that is measured against marketing tools.”
Now is a great time to experiment with it prior to the 2009 —Stacy Taffett, brand manager, Aquafina, in an interview
holiday season
with eMarketer, July 2009
63%
The primary ROI is in listening to and understanding customers
58% Unclear Objectives
We are pursuing it now to avoid being latecomers It is impossible for marketers to measure success if they do not
54% know what their objectives are before they start a social media
We are pursuing it because of the buzz surrounding it marketing initiative.
50%
In their haste to jump on the social media bandwagon, a certain
We use a specific set of metrics to measure social marketing
initiatives percentage of marketers have likely launched a Facebook fan
36% page, a user-generated video contest or a Twitter account without
It has helped to grow our business knowing exactly what they were hoping to achieve. Perhaps they
34% assumed they would learn as they went along.
We are pursuing it because our competitors are
In truth, learning while doing may have been a perfectly fine way
28%
of proceeding a year or two ago, when social media was still
We are pursuing it to satisfy senior management
15%
relatively new and there was more opportunity to do a quiet test
and gauge response before moving on. But today’s consumers are
Source: Shop.org, "The State of Retailing Online 2009: Profitability,
Economy and Multichannel" conducted by Forrester Research as cited by far more social-media-savvy than they have ever been before, and
Internet Retailer, October 6, 2009
it is not likely that they will tolerate a cautious approach.
109271 www.eMarketer.com
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This means that marketers need to have objectives in mind during
Too Many Metrics the planning stages. The clearer the objectives, the easier it will be
Complicating matters for marketers looking to prove the value of to find metrics to support those objectives.
their social media efforts is the fact that there are an
overwhelming number of metrics at their disposal. Many
marketers say they are confused by the hundreds of metrics
available for measuring social media success.
In fact, one influential blogger, David Berkowitz, senior director of
marketing and innovation at ad agency 360i, provided a list of 100
ways to measure social media on his blog. The list ranges from
soft metrics, such as the number of fans, followers or friends, to
more substantial measurements such as impact on online and
offline sales, market share and leads generated.
Other experts, including a few online marketers, believe that
striving after ROI at all costs can be a distraction from the true
value of social media—listening to consumers.
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 3

4. Social Media Measurement Today
Is Rudimentary
Website Traffic as the Default Metric
For the few marketers who do attempt to apply There is also a widespread tendency for social media marketers to
focus on Website traffic as their default measurement tool. In
quantitative measures to their social marketing several independent surveys and studies, Website traffic was
efforts, the metrics they use are not terribly deemed the most popular way of measuring social media
marketing efforts. On a consensus basis, about two-thirds of
sophisticated. Most marketers today do not
marketers use site traffic as their primary measurement metric.
invest sufficient time, effort or money on social
media measurement. Comparative Estimates: Leading Metric Used by
Marketers to Measure Social Media Marketing
Success, 2009 (% of respondents)
#1 measurement % of respondents
Measurement on the Cheap method used
According to a September 2009 MarketingProfs survey among
Bazaarvoice and The Site traffic •76% of CMOs worldwide
global marketers, the most prevalent tool for measuring social CMO Club, Dec 2009
media was “free analytics software,” chosen by 74.5% of Econsultancy and Direct traffic •64% of companies
bigmouthmedia, Nov to Website worldwide
respondents; the second-most-popular choice was “free buzz- 2009
monitoring services,” selected by 51%. Equation Research, Aug Tracking Website •62% of US brand marketers
2009 hits •64% of US ad agencies
Analytics/Measurement Tools Used by Social Media MarketingSherpa, Dec Increased Website •58% of US marketers in trial
Marketers Worldwide, September 2009 (% of 2009 traffic phase
•76% of US marketers in
respondents) transition phase
•88% of US marketers in
Free analytics software (e.g., Google Analytics, Quantcast or
strategic phase
YouTube Analytics)
74.5% Shop.org and Forrester Click-throughs •60% of US online retailers
Research, Oct 2009 to a retail site
Free buzz-monitoring service (e.g., TweetDeck, Facebook Stream Source: various, as noted, 2009
Search or Google Alerts)
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51.1%
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Tracking Twitter clicks and retweets (e.g., Bit.ly)
47.5% For additional information on the above chart, see the
Polls of social media friends/fans/connections to estimate Endnotes section.
effectiveness
37.8%
Paid analytics software (e.g., Omniture)
30.8%
Scientific control/exposed surveys of friends/fans/connections
to determine effectiveness
29.8%
Paid buzz-monitoring service (e.g., Nielsen Buzz Metrics,
Cymphony or Radiant 6)
19.7%
Note: n=1,513
Source: MarketingProfs, "The State of Social Media," provided to
eMarketer, December 10, 2009
109988 www.eMarketer.com
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Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 4

5. Social Media Measurement Today Is Rudimentary The Changing Tide: Social Media
Has an ROI Mandate
Clearly, site traffic can be an important barometer of consumer
interest for a brand, but on its own it cannot justify heavier If 2009 was the year that marketers dove into the
investment in social media. Most marketers would agree with this
statement, but they have yet to make the transition to more social media marketing pool, 2010 is the year they’ll
effective, relevant metrics; instead, they are clinging to what’s need to measure how well they are doing there.
easy and fast to measure.
The continued economic drought, combined with the inexorable
fixation on accountability for corporate marketing efforts, is forcing
“[One of the most common mistakes
companies to get serious with their social media investments.
companies make is] not understanding the Indeed, a new level of scrutiny should be applied to the money—
difference between non-financial impact and staff time—spent on social media marketing this year.
and financial impact. Non-financial impact is
a precursor to ROI. For example, 1,000 net Why do companies need to measure social media?
new daily visitors to a Web site attributed to
Facebook fans is of immense value to the
digital team, but unless these new visitors
transact as a result of their visit (or their
recommendations result in a transaction), Forrester Research: “[2010 is] the year social marketing
gets serious.”
the value of that traffic is limited (and
—Augie Ray, analyst, Forrester Research, in MediaPost, December
irrelevant to the sales manager).”
22, 2009
—Olivier Blanchard, brand strategist, BrandBuilder Inc.,
as cited in SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Social Media,
November 17, 2009
A September 2009 MarketingProfs survey of US B2C and B2B Imaginatik: “Companies no longer have fluff money [to
marketers shows a divergence between actual metrics used and experiment with social media]. Now it’s all about outcomes.”
those deemed most effective. While the most commonly used —Mark Turrell, chief executive, Imaginatik, in BusinessWeek,
marketing tactic for Facebook and Twitter was attempting to drive December 14, 2009
traffic to marketing Webpages, this was not judged to be the most
effective tactic. Ironically, the tactics deemed most successful—
creating a Facebook application around a brand, or monitoring
Twitter for PR problems—were used far less frequently.
Del Monte: “How we pulse [social] media through the year
and how we track that is a challenge for us, because at the end of
“Consultants often use buzz as their dominant the day, what did you do for market share—what did you do for
currency, and success is defined more often sales volume?”
by numbers of Twitter followers, blog —Doug Chavez, senior manager for digital marketing, Del Monte,
mentions, or YouTube hits than by traditional in Online Media Daily, May 2009
measures, such as return on investment.”
—“Beware Social Media Snake Oil,” in BusinessWeek,
December 3, 2009
Brand Builder Marketing: “‘Engagement,’ ‘increasing brand
awareness’ and ‘having more conversations’ are not real objectives.
Soft goals create soft strategies. Soft strategies turn to weak tactics.
Weak tactics turn into bogus metrics. The more specific the goals,
the more likely it is that organizations will see real (and quantifiable)
results every month, every quarter and beyond.”
—Olivier Blanchard, brand strategist, BrandBuilder Inc., in
SmartBrief’s SmartBlog on Social Media, November 17, 2009
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 5

6. The Changing Tide: Social Media Has an ROI Mandate Leaders in Measurement Have a
Competitive Advantage
As proof of the increased attention on social media accountability,
a September 2009 survey of 133 CMOs, conducted by Bazaarvoice Marketers who invest the time, money and
and the CMO Club, found that 72% of marketers who did not
attach revenue expectations to their social media spending in strategic thinking to perfect their social media
2009 plan to do so in 2010. The survey also revealed that, in 2009, strategies, and tie those efforts to bottom-line
only 29% of companies tracked the impact of social media on
results, stand to gain significant competitive
conversions, and only 16% on revenues. However, in 2010, those
proportions will increase to 81% and 71%, respectively. advantage over those in the purely experimental
The Bazaarvoice and CMO Club survey also stipulates that 2010 will stages. Two independent studies bear this out.
bring about a gradual shift in emphasis for the measurement of
social activities—from the softer, Web-centric metrics such as According to an October 2009 study by the Aberdeen Group, which
traffic, fans and volume of buzz, to harder metrics that are linked surveyed 250 enterprises worldwide and categorized them based on
directly to business results, such as conversions, sales and average their social media prowess, the top 20% of companies—
order value. It should be noted that the sponsor of the study, characterized as “best-in-class”—greatly outperformed those barely
Bazaarvoice, is a company that monitors social media activity. or rarely using social media. In fact, the best-in-class companies
were 87 times more likely to see higher returns on marketing
investment than were laggards. Further, among these companies:
I 68% had a process for monitoring social media.
I 58% had devoted resources to social media marketing.
I 61% engaged customers in online communities.
Another compelling case for social media’s payoff comes from
the Altimeter Group, in conjunction with Wetpaint. In their joint
study looking at the top 100 global brands, they found there was
a financial correlation between those companies that are
“deeply and widely engaged” in social media and those that
significantly outperform their peers in terms of both revenue
and profit performance.
“Social media engagement and financial
success work together to perpetuate a
healthy business cycle: a customer-oriented
mindset stemming from deep social
interaction allows a company to identify and
meet customer needs in the marketplace,
generating superior profits. The financial
success of the company, in turn, allows
further investment in engagement to build
even better customer knowledge, thereby
creating even more profits.” —Altimeter Group
and Wetpaint, “EngagementDB: Ranking the Top 100 Global
Brands,” July 2009
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 6

7. Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI
from Social Media
2. Organize your measurements and metrics in a
For marketers who want to go beyond the toe- logical framework.
Given the great abundance of choices, marketers should establish
dipping stage and actually quantify their social a framework for organizing their social media metrics. Generally,
media marketing efforts, the following guidelines these metrics fall into three broad buckets:
provide a framework for success. I Exposure—metrics that quantify the reach of social
media efforts
1. Establish clear marketing goals for your product I Engagement—metrics that capture active interactions
or brand, and then identify social measurements and intentions
that directly support those objectives.
I ROI/outcomes—metrics that quantify the return on
What marketers do with social networks and other online
investment or business outcome of the social media activity
community platforms should be determined by the end result they
are trying to achieve. The above three categories fall along a continuum, with exposure
being the least closely tied to business performance and
If a company sells gardening supplies and its primary marketing
ROI/outcomes the most directly linked to business success.
goal is to reinforce brand loyalty among its core customers, it
Further, each set of metrics provides a foundation for the next
might create a community platform that allows customers to
level, and all metrics should be as closely connected to the others
exchange ideas, stories and tips about gardening with each other.
as possible.
The company could also offer them special discounts at retail or
free samples of new products.
With this program, success could be measured through online
“To be successful, companies must have a
customer loyalty surveys, the frequency and intensity of firm foundation and understanding of how
interactions on the community platform, and a Net Promoter social networks can help them accomplish
score survey, which would ask customers if they would their overall marketing goals. Determine
recommend the company’s gardening products to others. success metrics before starting a social
network marketing initiative, not after.”
—Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst, eMarketer, in the
“We use online social communities as a tool
eMarketer report, “Marketing on Social Networks:
to drive business results and [to gauge] the
Branding, Buying and Beyond,” August 2009
long-term health of the brand. We also use
them as a customer insight tool.”
—Clare Bennett, senior vice president of global marketing,
American Express, in an interview with eMarketer, January
30, 2009
Importantly, marketers must resist the urge to use every metric
and measurement tool that comes their way. Just because
marketers can measure something, and it’s easy to do, doesn’t
mean they should. It’s better to look at a few carefully chosen
metrics—particularly those tied to corporate objectives—than to
be overwhelmed by a dizzying array of measurements that offer
little or no insight.
Similarly, marketers should not be looking for a silver bullet—a
one-size-fits-all panacea for social ROI. Each firm’s unique
business objectives will dictate the appropriate set of metrics for
measuring return on investment from social interactions.
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 7

8. Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media
3. Take a long-term outlook with social media 4. If hard ROI metrics are difficult to track directly,
interactions and measurements. It’s a commitment, consider a range of softer metrics that can be linked
not a campaign. back to desired business outcomes.
Social media is about relationships, and relationships of any kind While most companies will ultimately want hard ROI metrics (such
need to be nurtured (and measured) over a period of time. From a as those tied to revenues, profit or cost per lead), soft metrics,
business performance standpoint, marketers should seek to such as the number of friends or followers can serve as valuable
establish baselines from which they can track the progress of key proxy measures when the harder metrics are elusive—if the soft
metrics on an ongoing basis. metrics are linked to business outcomes correctly. For example, a
marketer could offer a coupon on a social network and then
monitor its redemption rate in order to weigh social engagement.
“The one thing people need to remember
when it comes to social media and Alternatively, an emphasis on softer metrics might be entirely
consumer engagement is that it can’t be a appropriate given the strong branding benefits marketers attribute
one-time hit when you’re trying to get to social interactions. As noted in a December 14, 2009,
involved with consumers. The whole BusinessWeek article, “Many argue that a relentless fixation on
hard numbers can lead companies to ignore the harder-to-quantify
purpose of getting involved is you’re trying
dividends of social media, such as trust and commitment. A
to build a relationship with the consumer.
Twittering employee, for example, might develop trust or goodwill
Building a relationship with a consumer is
among customers but have trouble putting a number on it.”
like building a relationship with anybody.”
—Rudy Wilson, director of marketing, Doritos, PepsiCo’s Blake Cahill, a social media blogger and senior vice president of
Frito-Lay North America, in an interview with eMarketer, corporate marketing at Visible Technologies, a social media
March 2009 measurement firm, suggests that marketers create a “social
dashboard” composed of both hard and soft metrics.
Moreover, marketers risk damaging their brands if they suddenly
back out. In the Altimeter Group/Wetpaint white paper, Denise “Measuring the success of social media can
Morrissey, online community manager for Toyota, said: “If you are
be a challenge, but using a variety of hard
going to engage, you have to have a plan and make sure that
and soft ROI metrics can absolutely be
resources are available. Because you can’t gracefully exit—once
accomplished. I would offer that volumes of
you’re in, you’re in. The days of walking away from a campaign are
over—once we engage, we have to commit to it.”
conversation over competitors, sentiment
(the good, the bad, the neutral), the level of
In summary, whatever marketers choose to measure on social reach and influence of those who are
platforms must be tracked consistently and over a sufficient interacting with your brand, the amount of
period of time to observe subtle, slow-moving trends.
community involvement, downloads,
registrations, donations, etc., are but some of
“CEOs are demanding ROI right away, and the measures that can be used to construct a
they don’t understand that you have to dashboard of success.”
build an audience and stickiness before you —Blake Cahill, senior vice president of corporate marketing,
can go to the next level. It’s the social media Visible Technologies, on his blog, September 28, 2009
platforms that are having problems
monetizing, but brands are monetizing Another option for quantifying the softer impacts of social media
social media every day.”—Ted Rubin, vice marketing comes from Razorfish. The digital ad agency created
the Social Influence Marketing (SIM) Score, which measures the
president of marketing and business development, e.l.f., in
share of consumer conversations online that are about a
an interview with eMarketer, March 2009
particular brand, as well as their sentiment—how much
consumers like or dislike a brand when they talk about it online.
Some companies will achieve a larger share of voice through their
social media efforts, while others will benefit from accumulating
strong positive sentiment. Achieving both, of course, is ideal.
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 8

9. Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media
5. Determine a dollar value for customers who Children with Diabetes Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, uses
choose to opt in and engage with your brand via social networks as platforms for polling consumers. It
social networks. systematically taps into and learns from the consumers
Marketers should develop clever ways to assign monetary values congregating on these sites. According to Joseph Natale, vice
to so-called soft metrics, such as number of fans, friends or president of new media, in an interview with eMarketer, “I think
followers, as a means to measure ROI. That is what Papa John’s there’s a huge opportunity as marketers look at social networks
International did. Jim Ensign, VP of marketing communications at and how they evaluate success and ROI. They should think about
the pizza chain, told eMarketer, “We look at the percentage [of doing market research, polling and surveying on the network. They
Facebook fans] that convert to customers, the percentage can create a category of market insights through this channel.
increase in their frequency [of visits], projected increases in their Those insights are extremely valuable, and securing that
average ticket and what their tenure is with us. …We can project information is much more valuable than traditional advertising
their future value. Are we 100% right? No. But are we directionally metrics. We do polls and surveys all the time.”
correct? Absolutely.”
Savvy marketers could take this approach a step further and 7. Build the technological capabilities to measure
develop sophisticated models to estimate the lifetime value of a your customers’ complete digital footprint—in
customer, and then determine what kinds of social engagement real time.
bring in new customers, and, more specifically, which This is arguably the holy grail of social media measurement, and
engagements drive long-term loyalty to the brand. one marketer who articulates this approach well is Michael
Mendenhall, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for
Hewlett-Packard.
“Assigning monetary values to different social
actions—commenting, becoming a fan,
following, links back—is a good start. It “Marketers have clickstream and
would take any organization time to refine it e-commerce data, but the difficult part is
and iterate. It’ll never be a perfect science, the qualitative part in between. I think the
because human behavior is inconsistent, and challenge for marketers is to begin to build
we change with technology.” —Michael Brito, technological capabilities that allow you to
social media strategist/author, Intel/Britopian.com, in an see the complete digital footprint that a
interview with eMarketer, August 7, 2009 given customer leaves when they engage
with your brand. You need to be able to
understand that behaviorally and/or
6. In your ROI calculations, don’t overlook the value contextually and address that consumer in
of cost savings that can result from ongoing social
a relevant way. …You need a sophisticated
listening and tracking.
CRM platform that allows you to…recognize
Social media channels provide marketers with a treasure trove of
consumers when they come back.”
information and insights about consumers, including their
attitudes, perceptions, feelings, behaviors, pain-points and
—Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO, Hewlett-Packard, in
passions. If marketers are willing to tap into the social sphere, an interview with eMarketer, May 5, 2009
there is much learning to be gained about their products’ and
brands’ positions, as well as those of their competitors. Marketers who want to capture a 360-degree, holistic view of their
Consequently, when evaluating the ROI of social media, marketers customers can also develop attribution models for their marketing
should factor in the potential cost savings related to research and communications efforts. These models are designed to identify
development time and custom market research. and quantify the value of every media touchpoint along the
purchase funnel. Because attribution models provide a relative
weight for each marketing component, including interactions on
social platforms, marketers can make future decisions about
media allocations.
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 9

10. Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media Endnotes
Importantly, marketers should strive to systematically monitor Endnote numbers correspond to the unique
social media interactions and use this valuable “listening/learning”
data to inform their online and offline media and creative
six-digit identifier in the lower left corner
messages. One of the biggest challenges will be to measure the of each chart. The charts from the report are
sharing activity among social consumers, including online video
repeated before their respective endnotes.
ads and widgets, which can affect a marketer’s reach and
engagement levels.
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Among other skill sets, this will require a real mastery of Web
analytics. However, those who are able to connect all the dots will Comparative Estimates: Leading Metric Used by
enjoy a significant competitive advantage. Marketers to Measure Social Media Marketing
Success, 2009 (% of respondents)
#1 measurement % of respondents
method used
Bazaarvoice and The Site traffic •76% of CMOs worldwide
CMO Club, Dec 2009
Econsultancy and Direct traffic •64% of companies
bigmouthmedia, Nov to Website worldwide
2009
Equation Research, Aug Tracking Website •62% of US brand marketers
2009 hits •64% of US ad agencies
MarketingSherpa, Dec Increased Website •58% of US marketers in trial
2009 traffic phase
•76% of US marketers in
transition phase
•88% of US marketers in
strategic phase
Shop.org and Forrester Click-throughs •60% of US online retailers
Research, Oct 2009 to a retail site
Source: various, as noted, 2009
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Extended Note: According to MarketingSherpa, the phases of
the social media marketing lifecycle are defined as "Phase 1:
Trial"–no process, platform-centric; "Phase 2: Transition"–informal
process, randomly performed; "Phase 3: Strategic"–formal
process, routinely performed.
Citation: Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia, "Social Media and
Online PR Report," provided to eMarketer, November 25, 2009;
Equation Research, "2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report,"
August 18, 2009; MarketingSherpa, "2010 Social Media Marketing
Benchmark Report," December 11, 2009; Shop.org, "The State of
Retailing Online 2009: Profitability, Economy and Multichannel"
conducted by Forrester Research as cited by Internet Retailer,
October 6, 2009
Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media 10

11. More Information and Analysis About eMarketer
from eMarketer
eMarketer is a business service unlike any
For related information, see these eMarketer
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reports, articles and interviews:
aggregates and analyzes all the available
How Do You Measure Success? research, surveys and data on a given topic. So
10 Best Practices for Success with Social Media you see far more than a single source could ever
Using Social Media Strategically
provide. eMarketer doesn’t deliver one point of
view—it gives you thousands. Providing
External Links
overviews and insights available nowhere else,
100 Ways to Measure Social Media eMarketer reports on the reports, analyzes the
EngagementDB: Ranking the Top 100 Brands analysts and dissects the data.
The ROI on Social Media Monitoring: Why It Pays to
Listen to Online Conversation A Trusted Resource
eMarketer serves as a trusted, third-party resource, cutting
Why Social Media Measurement Needs to Catch Up
through the clutter and hype–helping businesses make sense of
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